Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The tragedy at Newtown, Connecticut is a reflection of our culture. The primary driver of culture and values in the modern world is the mass media. Television and the movie theater determines the cultural values that we live by. Children are raised in front of a television, which has become an electronic babysitter. Teenagers spend hours and hours watching TV or playing video games. The intellectual capabilities of these young people are not fully developed and, in many cases, are not able to distinguish between the fantasy world on TV and real life.

When I was a teenager, I can remember discussing movies with friends and we would say, ‘Wow, did you see that guy get his head cut off?’ We did not say, ‘Wow, did you see how good the special effects were when that guy got his head cut off?’ Television today is not just an orgy of sex and violence, it is an orgy of senseless sex and violence.

Each year on average about 13,000 people ...